With Madison’s Central Library set to close next month for renovations, there is uncertainty about where the city’s homeless will be able to find shelter during the winter.

Steve Schooler, executive director of Porchlight, Inc., is suggesting the former Don Miller properties on East Washington Avenue be turned into a temporary day shelter for the homeless people of Madison.

Mayor Paul Soglin said he is opposed to Schooler’s proposition.

“The zoning on the property is such that it could easily cost more than $100,000 and 6 months to prepare it,” he said.

Schooler said he will meet with Soglin this Tuesday to find out more on why he opposes turning the vacant car sale showrooms into a temporary shelter, Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, said.

The city purchased a number of properties under a land-banking program, and three proposals are going to be looked at, Soglin said. The proposals range from housing to commercial usage, and it is likely that all will be developed, he added.

“City ordinances require that the property be brought up to current standards as it relates to landscaping and set backs,” Soglin said. “While the building could be used as a day shelter for less than 100 people, the property would first have to meet these requirements,” he added.

Schooler said he believes the Don Miller property would be a perfect location.

“It is vacant, it would come at very low cost and it is within walking distance of the downtown,” he said in an email to The Badger Herald. “It also is a fairly large space that could accommodate a number of people comfortably.”

Schooler said the loss of the library leaves something to be desired for Madison’s homeless.

“The downtown library and the Capitol basement, which formerly allowed persons to have a place to be during the day, are closed,” Schooler said. “These were two spaces that significant numbers of homeless used to keep warm during the day for the winter months. Also, at the library they could access resources for employment and housing.”

According to the Porchlight, Inc. website, Madison’s 2008 homeless population rose to its highest level since 2000. Its largest increase was in families with children. In 2008, more than 3,300 people were turned away from shelters due to lack of space.

Maniaci said she would have been apprehensive about the proposition six months ago, but current circumstances have changed her mind.

The increase in homeless people downtown, specifically outside the Salvation Army on East Mifflin Street, is alarming, she said.

Maniaci said her constituents have brought the increase of foreclosure-related homelessness to her attention.

Maniaci acknowledged the proposition’s potential, but she does not know how her neighborhood would feel about it.  

“As we head into colder weather, we need to have something together,” she said.

She added she is willing to have a conversation to see what can be done.

“We need to pull together to find a solution that will work for the community,” she said.